Gavin McEwen
CEO, FarmaxGavin is from a Waikato dairy farming background, with a Bachelor of Horticulture from Lincoln University. He has 30 years’ experience in the agricultural sector, both owning and operating his own businesses through to managerial positions in LIC, Turners and Growers, and Farmax Ltd.
He was the co-founder of two technology start-ups in the early 2000s, creating one of the first cloud-based database systems marketed internationally and being recognised in the Deloitte Fast 50 and as one of the top 100 fastest-growing technology businesses in the Asia-Pacific region. From a pragmatic perspective, Gavin’s focus is on furthering the potential of New Zealand pastoral agriculture through adoption of information technology, believing that transparency and collaboration among the agricultural service industry is long overdue and is key to unlocking that potential.
Presentation Intro
For a small country with only two degrees of separation and a primary industry that is an economic foundation of the country, yet very small on global scale, we continually reinvent wheels, waste shareholder and taxpayer dollars, and have failed to solve many technology problems that could provide New Zealand with a significant first mover advantage in increasingly demanding markets. What needs to happen to get this right?
Contact Details
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Gavin McEwen
Gavin's focus is on furthering the potential of New Zealand pastoral agriculture through adoption of information technology, believing that transparency and collaboration among the agricultural service industry is long overdue and is key to unlocking that potential.
Speaker Profiles
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Greg Peyroux
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Kylie Hall
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Russell Craig
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Jaco Fourie
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Paul Ryan
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With consumers desire to educate themselves further on information about the products they consume, the pressure for supply-chain participants to be transparent, means product traceability become a standard, not a value add.
Greg Bodeker
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Changes in the regulatory environment, and in consumer expectations, requires rapid deployment of digital technologies across New Zealand's agricultural sector. We must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures (thanks to Shakespeare).
Ian Reilly
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Ian has spent 30+ years turning new technology into innovative, world-first products in diverse industry sectors including agtech, biotech, medtech, foodtech, renewable energy, defence and aerospace.
Australia
Emma Wheeler
Head of Strategy, Trust Codes
The tech sector in New Zealand is in a prime position to deliver on consumer expectations for increased transparency, with brilliant data-driven stories of provenance that our global consumers are hungry for.
Bridgit Hawkins
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From my earliest days of helping on the family farm to founding a technology business focused on enabling financial and environmental sustainability for farmers, I am passionate about making a difference in the agricultural sector.
Kit Franklin
Agricultural Engineering Senior Lecturer, Harper Adams University
Kit's research focuses on sustainable future farming systems, with the most notable project to date being the award-winning Hands Free Hectare
United Kingdom